Chicken gang makes a break

A veritable gang of escapee chickens, whose hangout is Tenth and Verdant, has drawn several calls to police, from worried drivers fearing traffic problems to a fed up neighbor whose yard is often invaded by them.

It’s a serious issue, but the fact that the neighbor lives across the street from the chickens begs for a comic twist.

“It makes like a huge joke, right? Why did the chicken cross the road? To mess with my god—- dog. I’m sorry, I have a horrible mouth. I hate chickens, just because of this,” said the neighbor, who asked not to be named.

She said the problem has gone on for about a month now. The chickens get out, cross the road — Verdant, in this instance — and sit along the fence, taunting her dogs. Then her dogs escape, the police are called, and she has to leave work to round up her animals.

She’s frustrated that she is being disturbed at work over matters outside her control. “I’m sorry they got out to chase the chickens.

“They just sit there at the fence and they look at my dogs and they root up the grass,” the neighbor said. She’s even told police, “If you guys do not do something about this we’re going to get the slingshot out.”

The chickens also wander onto 10th Street.

“It’s going to cause an accident,” the neighbor said.

The other day, The Dalles Codes Enforcement Officer Nikki Lesich encountered about 10 chickens hanging out at 10th and Verdant. She was able to find their home by simply following/herding them from a distance, and seeing where they went.

Sure enough, they went, single file, into a yard with a large chicken coop. The white chicken decided to stand her ground for a bit, and gave Lesich a bit of guff, but also eventually wandered home.

Lesich found the chicken owner and talked to her. The owner said she’d been sick for awhile, and her husband had been intending to make repairs to keep the chickens contained, but hadn’t gotten to it yet.

Lesich learned the owners did not have a required city permit to have the chickens, so she wrote them a letter telling them to get a permit, and to give immediate attention to containing the chickens. She said they would face a fine if another complaint came in.